State v. Johnson
Decision Date | 29 June 2016 |
Docket Number | No. 0189,0189 |
Parties | STATE OF MARYLAND v. MICHAEL M. JOHNSON |
Court | Court of Special Appeals of Maryland |
REPORTED
Opinion by Wright, J.
On April 25, 2012, a Baltimore City grand jury indicted appellee, Michael M. Johnson, for the murder of 16-year-old Phylicia Barnes. Johnson was tried by a jury in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City and was acquitted of first-degree murder but convicted of second-degree murder. Subsequently, Johnson filed a motion for a new trial, which the circuit court granted on March 20, 2013, based on a finding of a Brady violation.1
The case was reset for a new jury trial, which commenced on December 2, 2014. During the presentation of the State's case on Friday, December 19, 2014, Johnson moved for a mistrial. The court initially denied the motion for mistrial, but later indicated that it would take "the weekend to think about this." The State rested at the close of proceedings on that same day, and after the court excused one of the alternate jurors, Johnson made a motion for judgment of acquittal. Without objection from defense counsel, the trial judge suggested that the motion for judgment of acquittal be addressed on Monday "because . . . I've got this other issue to consider between now and then, too."
When trial resumed on Monday, December 22, 2014, the court announced at the outset of the proceedings that it was going to grant the motion for mistrial, then discharged the jury, and rescheduled a retrial for March 9, 2015. On January 14, 2015, Johnson filed a "Motion to Dismiss Indictment on Ground of Double Jeopardy," whichthe circuit court heard on January 20, 2015. At the close of that motions hearing, the court treated Johnson's motion to dismiss indictment as a motion for reconsideration and struck its previous grant of the mistrial, then proceeded to grant Johnson's motion for judgment of acquittal.
The State filed a new indictment on February 2, 2015, which Johnson moved to dismiss. Following a hearing on March 12, 2015, the circuit court granted Johnson's motion and dismissed the case. The State subsequently appealed,2 asking us to answer the following:
Did the circuit court err in granting Johnson's motion for judgment of acquittal twenty-nine days after terminating the case by declaring a mistrial and dismissing the jury; and, did the court subsequently err in granting Johnson's motion to dismiss on double jeopardy grounds?
For the reasons that follow, we reverse the circuit court's judgment.
Phylicia Barnes disappeared on December 28, 2010, while visiting family in Baltimore during the Christmas break. The investigation began as a missing person's case and remained so for four months. On April 26, 2011, the police responded to the Conowingo Dam area of the Susquehanna River in Harford County for the report of an unidentified female body. With the assistance of the Department of Natural Resources, the police removed the body from the water and, through dental records, identified the victim as Barnes. The police then opened a murder investigation focusing on appellant,Michael M. Johnson, who was the last person to be seen with Barnes before her disappearance.
According to the circuit court, there was a "tremendous amount" of testimony from the various law enforcement agencies that investigated the case. Those officers testified regarding the "hundreds" of text messages between Johnson, who lived in Baltimore, and Barnes, who lived in North Carolina. The officers also testified about a "sexually explicit video" of Johnson and Barnes found on Johnson's phone as well as on Barnes's sister's phone. The State's evidence also included Johnson's own statements from hundreds of phone calls and text messages intercepted by the police.
Prior to the start of the second trial, Johnson filed a motion in limine requesting that certain portions of the intercepted communications be redacted. The circuit court granted Johnson's motion in part and ordered that portions of the wiretap communications be redacted. During the testimony of Sergeant David Feltman, the defense moved for a mistrial because a recording of one of those taped communications had not been redacted. Specifically, the defense objected to two comments, one that made reference to Johnson's friend contacting a lawyer ("Tabbie called Neverdon right on the spot"), and the other, a reference to the warrant charging first- and second-degree murder. Defense counsel made the motion for mistrial and argued as follows:
The circuit court initially denied the motion for mistrial and excused the jury. During further argument on the motion for mistrial, the State responded that any error was inadvertent and suggested that the appropriate remedy was for the court to instruct the jury to disregard the brief comments regarding contacting an attorney and the charges:
The circuit court again denied the motion for mistrial, finding that there had been no formal ruling on what portions of the recording were to be redacted and that, in any event, a curative instruction was sufficient:
Thereafter, the circuit court instructed the jury to disregard the inadmissible comments:
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